Brexit can help us break free, says Russell Group chief
By UNIVERSITIES should stop complaining about Brexit because it could be the “catalyst we all need”, the chairman of the Russell Group has said.
Sir David Greenaway, who represents some of Britain’s most elite universities, argues that a world where the UK is no longer part of the EU will give universities the freedom they need to exceed expectations.
Writing in today’s The Daily Telegraph, Sir David, who is also vice-chancellor of the University of Nottingham, says that “the spirit of endeavour” his university showed in forging partnerships with Rolls-Royce, Boots, and GSK, and in becoming the first foreign university to set up a campus in China, “was the same spirit that took me from a Glasgow tenement as a child to vice chancellor of this university and I’m keen to rediscover that sense of breaking free and exceeding expectations all over again. We all can”.
He adds: “Brexit might be the catalyst we all need.” Sir David Greenaway: Page 22
Did you know an astonishing 90 per cent of the higher education community voted for Remain? Compared with the Leave campaign’s winning margin of just four percentage points, it’s a position of relative unity that many would covet. Yet it fills me with a slight unease.
Why? Because it suggests either the academic world knows something the electorate doesn’t or that we’re hopelessly out of touch.
While we deal with this sense of loss and disconnect there’s a risk that the opportunities presented by Brexit are overshadowed. As our future becomes more closely determined by trade and forging new global links, all universities, and not just those in the Russell Group, have a lot to share with Whitehall.
Those who think small, and are without a network or understanding of the global opportunities for learning, risk being left behind. It doesn’t matter whether you voted for or against, what matters is how we move forwards.
You may think Nottingham too small to think like this, compared with the Londons and Manchesters of this world. In fact, we’re the ninth largest city in the fifth biggest economy in the world.
Nottingham University has partnerships with Rolls-Royce, Boots, and GSK and we were the first foreign university to set up a campus in China.
The spirit of endeavour that took us there was the same spirit that took me from a Glasgow tenement as a child to vice chancellor of this university and I’m keen to rediscover that sense of breaking free and exceeding expectations all over again. We all can. Brexit might be the catalyst we all need.
Across the country we have to make sure we develop the right connections outside Western Europe and build on what we have in Asia. We’ve been in China for more than a decade, so our Chinese students are already taking influential jobs in government and business in China. That translates into commercial benefits at home and we can see that happening across the Midlands.
The University of Nottingham’s response to Brexit is to become more global, more outwardly facing, and to celebrate the contribution made by the international part of our university’s DNA to our community in the UK.
If the consensus in the referendum is matched by more higher education institutions thinking globally it would send a message to the world that British universities are open for business. So this year we are heading to London to make our case to decision-makers; but the next time we bring the best of our university, city and region to town, it could be to Shanghai, New Delhi or Singapore.